3rd Annual “90 days to Earth day”

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WWAY)– Kevin Murphy has been picking up trash in the Cape Fear area for years. He’s a fifth grade teacher at St. Mary’s and the director of the non-profit organization, Ocean Cure. Three years ago, he decided to start the “90 Days to Earth Day” challenge. More and more kids are joining every year.

“Hopefully this year will be a hundred or more,” Murphy says. “You know, my dream is at least 1,000 participants. It’s a big number, but I have a dream.”

From January 22 to April 22, students from kindergarten through twelfth grade will help clean up, focusing on the waterways. Murphy estimates they’ve collected a total of two and half tons of litter over the past two years.

Though every little bit helps, one local student has gone above and beyond expectations. Megan Durns has won the competition twice. She says her motivation for picking up trash is simple.

“Dolphins. Every time I go surfing, I look for dolphins,” Durns says. “Either before or after I go surfing, I take about twenty minutes going around the beach picking up trash.”

Durns has won thousands of dollars in prizes for her efforts over the past two years, but this year, she says winning isn’t her goal.

“I’m hoping someone will beat me this year,” says Durns. “I kind of hope there will be a younger kid coming along and beating one of the older kids.”

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If more idiots like you would spend 1/2 of your time making a difference in the world, like this guy, maybe we would have just a little bit longer to enjoy this planet. Instead, some jacka** like you sits on a computer and rips people apart that are picking up trash left behind….from people like you. This guy isn’t self absorbed, it’s the guy sitting at the other end of the computer taking the time to write such a ridiculous, condescending rant. Who cares about your opinions? Again, what difference are you making? At least he is doing SOMETHING. No wonder America is overweight.

Im sooooo tired of having to hear about another cause for something that someone does in their personal time to bring attention to themselves.

Look up self-aggrandizement or narcissism…and get over yourself enviro-wacko. I think George Carlin said it best:

“We’re so self-important. So self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. What? Are these people kidding me?

I’m tired of Earth Day, I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world save for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a crap about the planet. They don’t care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.

Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are screwed. Difference. The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We’ve been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we’ve only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we’re a threat? That somehow we’re gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles…hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages…And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet…the planet…the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!

We’re going away. Pack your stuff, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Thank God for that. Maybe a little styrofoam. The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.

You wanna know how the planet’s doing? Ask those people at Pompeii, who are frozen into position from volcanic ash, how the planet’s doing. You wanna know if the planet’s all right, ask those people in Mexico City or Armenia or a hundred other places buried under thousands of tons of earthquake rubble, if they feel like a threat to the planet this week. Or how about those people in Kilowaia, Hawaii, who built their homes right next to an active volcano, and then wonder why they have lava in the living room.

The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed, and if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new pardigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?” Plastic…moron.

So, the plastic is here, our job is done, we can be phased out now. And I think that’s begun. Don’t you think that’s already started? I think, to be fair, the planet sees us as a mild threat. Something to be dealt with. And the planet can defend itself in an organized, collective way, the way a beehive or an ant colony can. A collective defense mechanism. The planet will think of something. What would you do if you were the planet? How would you defend yourself against this troublesome, pesky species? Let’s see… Viruses. Viruses might be good. They seem vulnerable to viruses. And, uh…viruses are tricky, always mutating and forming new strains whenever a vaccine is developed. Perhaps, this first virus could be one that compromises the immune system of these creatures. Perhaps a human immunodeficiency virus, making them vulnerable to all sorts of other diseases and infections that might come along. And maybe it could be spread sexually, making them a little reluctant to engage in the act of reproduction.

Well, that’s a poetic note. And it’s a start. And I can dream, can’t I? See I don’t worry about the little things: bees, trees, whales, snails. I think we’re part of a greater wisdom than we will ever understand. A higher order. Call it what you want. Know what I call it? The Big Electron. The Big Electron…whoooa. Whoooa. Whoooa. It doesn’t punish, it doesn’t reward, it doesn’t judge at all. It just is. And so are we. For a little while.”

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2015 years 8 months ago

Everything you said is very true. The planet will be fine, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to keep it in usable condition for the current plants and animals who happen to be here. Everyone and everything might get to stay a little longer if we try to take care of it. There will be floods, there will be earthquakes, there will be hurricanes etc… but that doesn’t mean that we don’t produce negative effects in the environment too that yes do hurt the bees, the whales, and our bike paths. I don’t think you throw up your hands and do nothing. The earth will take care of us all in its own time, but til then I would like to try to make it a better place.